This Week vizt. last Tuesday my Family and Goods arrived at Boston where we have taken
Possession of my House in Queen street where I hope, I shall live as long as I have
any Connections with Boston.

This Day Majr. Martin came into the Office and chatted an Hour very sociably and pleasantly.
He says that Politicks are the finest Study and science in the World, but they are
abused. Real Patriotism or Love of ones Country is the greatest of moral Virtues,
&c. He is a Man of Sense and Knowledge of the World. His Observation upon Politicks
is just, they are the grandest, the Noblest, the most usefull and important Science,
in the whole Circle.

A Sensible Soldier is as entertaining a Companion as any Man whatever. They acquire
an Urbanity, by Travel and promiscuous Conversation, that is charming. This Major
Martin has conversed familiarly in Scotland, in England, and in America, and seems
to understand every Subject of general Conversation very well.

I have now got through the Hurry of my Business. My Father in Law2 Mr. Hall and my Mother are well settled in my Farm at Braintree, the Produce of my
Farm is all collected in, my own Family is removed and well settled in Boston, my
Wood and Stores are laid in for the Winter, my Workmen are nearly all paid. I am disengaged
from public Affairs, and now have nothing to do but to mind my Office, my Clerks and
my Children.

But this Week which has been so agreable to me, in the Course of my own Affairs, has
not been so happy for my Friends. My Brother in Law has failed in Trade, is confined
to his House, unable to answer the Demands upon him, by some Thousands. A Miserable
Prospect before him for himself, his Wife, Children, Father, Mother, and all his Friends.3 Beware of Idleness, Luxury, and all Vanity, Folly and Vice!

The Conversation of the Town and Country has been about the strange Occurrence of
last Week, a Piracy said to have been committed on a Vessell bound to Cape Cod, 3
Men killed, a Boy missing, and only one Man escaped to tell the News—a misterious,
inexplicable Affair!4 About Wilkes's probable Mayoralty, and about the Salaries to the Judges. These are
the 3 principal Topicks of Conversation at present.

My Workmen have this day loaded my Brothers Boat with Horse dung from Bracketts stable.
This is the 3d. Freight—the first was 15. Load, the second 12 and this last 11, in
all 38 Loads.

4. The Ansell Nickerson murder case, an “Affair” in which JA was to be involved as one of Nickerson's counsel and which remains to this day “misterious.”
The Boston Evening Post of 23 Nov. 1772 gives the facts as they were first reported:

“On Sunday the 15th Current, Captain Joseph Doane, jun. sailed from Chatham Harbour
on the Back of Cape Cod, and soon after, viz. about 10 o'Clock in the Forenoon saw
a Schooner with a Signal of Distress, and, going on board, found one Man only in her
who appeared to be in a great Fright, and gave the following Account.—That the Day
before the said Schooner, Thomas Nickerson, Master, sailed from Boston, bound to Chatham—That
about 2 o'Clock the next Morning they saw a Topsail Schooner, who brought them to,
and sent a Boat on board, and after questioning them returned again—Soon after four
Boats with armed Men came back from the Schooner, and the Man who gave the Account
fearing he should be Impressed, got over the Stern and held with his Hands by the
Taffarill, with his Feet on the Moulding, under the Cabin Windows. That whilst he
was thus hanging over the Stern he judges by what he heard that the Master, with his
own Brother, and a Brother-in-Law, named Newcomb, were murdered and thrown overboard,
and a Boy named Kent, carried away alive, as they said, in order to make Punch for them— That he heard a Talk of burning the Vessel, but it was finally agreed to leave her
to drive out to Sea with her Sails standing. That after perpetrating this inhuman
Deed they plundered the Vessel of a considerable Quantity of Cash, knocked out the
Head of a Barrel of Rum, and after wasting { 70 } the greatest Part of it, went off with the Money and other Booty; tho' they left behind
a Quarter of fresh Beef & a number of small Stores.—That when they left the Vessel
he came upon Deck, he found none of the Crew, but saw the Marks of Blood, and supposes
they were murdered.”

Nickerson was brought to Boston, examined by the Governor and other officials, and
committed to jail pending his trial by a special court of admiralty. Public opinion
was soon sharply divided between whigs who, remembering the Corbet case, were willing
to believe the British navy was responsible for the atrocity, and tories who, like
Hutchinson, found “Every part of [Nickerson's] account . . . incredible” and thought
him guilty of a shocking multiple crime for the sake of “the money which the crew
had received at Boston” (Hutchinson, Massachusetts Bay, ed. Mayo, 3:300–302).

On 16 Dec. the court sat. Nickerson's counsel, JA and Josiah Quincy Jr., requested and obtained a delay in order to gather further
evidence. The trial took place in the summer, extending from 28 July to 6 Aug., and
the prisoner, who stoutly maintained his innocence throughout, was found not guilty
(Boston Gazette, 9 Aug. 1773).

Hutchinson says the verdict was owing to a technicality: Nickerson could be tried
in America only for piracy (if for murder, he would have had to be sent to England,
where evidence would be impossible to obtain). But four of the eight judges held that
in order to prove the piracy, the murders would also have to be proved. Hutchinson
did not agree, but the equal division of the judges resulted in acquittal.

JA's civil law authorities and other notes for his argument in the Nickerson case will
be found among his legal papers (Adams Papers, Microfilms, Reel No. 185). In his Autobiography he wrote: “I know not to this day what Judgment
to form of his Guilt or Innocence. And this doubt I presume was the Principle of Acquittal.”
On 30 July 1773 Nickerson signed a promissory note to JA for his legal fees and expenses in the amount of £6 13s. 4d. lawful money. The note
remains in the Adams Papers. It is not receipted.